The 23rd Annual North Carolina Joint Grains Conference is fast approaching, January 12th and 13th. The Conference is a joint effort by the soybean, corn small grains and cotton industries in the state.
NC Soybean Growers CEO Charles Hall tells us what we can look forward to:
Hall: The annual Grains Conference which also includes the cotton association at our annual event where we have our membership meeting and where we also bring together speakers who discuss the futures markets for grain and cotton, we also bring in our extension specialist in to share the latest in technology from NC State on yield and pest management.
This year we also have our yield awards for corn, soybeans and wheat. It’s always exciting to see the winners come in and get their awards for the top yields and most efficient yields in the state. And we also have an awards banquet as well, to honor farmers who have served their industries, and to honor other individuals that have been associated with the different commodities and have been recognized by farmers for their service.
SFN: Now, this year it’s moving back to Durham, it has been in New Bern, I think the last three years?
Hall: It has been at New Bern, we like to move it around to make sure that farmers from different areas of the state have an opportunity to participate. Again, it’s open to all farmers and registration is free, the only thing that has a cost is the awards banquets. But, Thursday and Friday sessions in Durham at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel are absolutely free to growers. We generally have about 400 growers there and we’d like to have more.
SFN: A lot of really, really good information come out of every year, all the extension specialist give their research plot results, and to me that’s always the most interesting.
Hall: I like that part, too. we invest in that the different commodity groups put the farmers money into that research, and we certainly like to see those research leaders come back to our conference and tell us the beginning of the year what they’ve done, and what we can look forward to putting to work back on the farm in the upcoming season.
That’s certainly a big part, but another big part. Another big part this year is is looking at foreign trade, we have a speaker that will be talking about China’s role in the world agricultural economy, we’ll also have an officer from the North Carolina State Ports Authority come and talk a little bit about agricultural exports and imports through the state ports, and as you probably know there’s a big imitative right now to look at ports infrastructure in North Carolina. And agriculture certainly stands to benefit from that focus on our ports and export trade.
To learn more or to register, go online to: ncgrainsconference.org
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